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SMA Worldwide has invested in expanding its fleet to meet the growing demand for freight services across the country and worldwide.

SMA is a member of Palletways, Europe’s largest and fastest growing express palletised freight network. The company has taken delivery of new trucks, in the new company livery, to support its work across the Palletways network. It has also added two double deck trailers, an urban trailer and new vans to the fleet as part of the £100,000+ investment programme.

Dr Attia, chairman at SMA Worldwide, said: “Continually investing in the best equipment and latest technology to maintain and improve our service is paramount to the business, to deliver the best possible service to our customers at home and abroad. These additions mean we can extend our collection and delivery window for our customers.”

Palletways UK Managing Director, adds: “The Palletways network is growing all the time. It continues to go from strength to strength because of companies like SMA Worldwide who invest in their fleet and deliver customer service excellence.”

Founded in 1982, SMA Worldwide offers a range of logistics, courier and warehousing services. It specialises in worldwide air and sea freight, to all countries and major cities around the globe, as well as secure storage, warehousing, single and multi-pallet distribution, offering a complete logistics and pallet delivery solution across Europe and the UK. Customers include leading retailers Selfridges and Harrods and the newly awarded University College London account.

SMA is a Platinum Club member of the Palletways network – which recognises those members who attain the very highest service standards. They also now offer their customers the latest new Palletways feature service – ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival). ETA notifies customers of two-hour delivery time slots and consignment contents, which significantly enhances customer service.

UK-wide road haulage firm SMA Pallets Ltd is the first company in Hertfordshire to provide its customers with an accurate two-hour time delivery window for palletised freight.

The new service is thanks to innovative, game changing technology developed by Palletways, Europe’s largest and fastest growing palletised freight network. SMA Pallets Ltd is one of 100+ independent transport companies who, as part of the Palletways network, are uniquely positioned to offer this service.

Through the ETA system, SMA Pallets will also be able to provide SMS and email notifications to both their customers and consumers. Information is provided to track and trace goods and notify the two-hour window within which the pallet will be delivered.

Alex Stewart, Operations Supervisor at SMA Pallets said: “The number one on our customers’ wish list is to receive two-hour delivery windows together with electronic notifications via mobile phone and email. Our pallet information system is now on a par with only the best parcel operators. No other palletised freight network or operator in the UK has this system.

“Working with Palletways, we’re part of the first pallet network in the UK to offer a comprehensive ETA system. In turn, this provides our customers an advantage over their competitors and a greater ability to manage their logistics and control costs. It’s a win-win on all sides.”

All drivers in the Palletways UK network of over 100 depots are trained to use the ETA App that will enable them to alter routes and delivery times according to traffic conditions and unforeseen circumstances, such as road traffic accidents. This technology offers an added level of certainty to the two-hour delivery windows.

Dave Walmsley, Palletways UK Managing Director, said: “We have been working around the clock for twelve months to make sure that our game changing ETA system is ready to improve the offer of our members, like SMA Pallets, to both the customers of today and the future.

SMA Pallets is one of around 400 hundred members of Palletways’ European distribution network, all independent transport operators which share their resources to deliver small consignments of palletised freight to market more efficiently than before.

Notes to Editors

ETA in action – how does the system work?

Step One: The Palletways customer books a consignment;

Step Two: Consignment is collected and transported via a Palletways Hub to the delivery depot. At each stage of the process, delivery notifications are available;

Step three: Upon leaving the delivery depot the notification is sent to the consumer via SMS/ email advising the two-hour delivery window.

About Palletways

Key Palletways stats:

Palletways was founded in the UK in 1994

In total Palletways handles up to 40,000 pallets daily, including more than 23,000 pallets a day in the UK, 10,000 in Italy and 3,000 in Iberia.

One in every four pallets handled by palletised freight networks in the UK is distributed by Palletways

During a typical operating day Palletways handles more than one pallet every second.

The Palletways Group:

Palletways provides an express delivery solution for consignments of palletised freight, and is the leading dedicated pallet network in Europe. The Palletways network operates more depots and handles greater volumes of pallets than any other similar network.

Over the past 23 years Palletways has developed a strategic network of more than 400 depots and 17 hubs. It now provides collection and distribution services across 20 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Spain, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

In the UK Palletways has a national hub in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and regional hubs in London, Leeds, Edinburgh and Bristol. It offers a range of express distribution services for consignments of palletised freight across the UK. These include next day, next day AM, timed delivery options, and Economy 2/3 day.

The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark are served via a hub operation in Nijmegen.

In Germany the Palletways hub operation is in Knullwald (near Kassel).

In Italy the national hub is in Bologna with regional hubs in Naples and Milan.

The Iberian national hub, serving Spain and Portugal, is in Madrid with regional hubs in Zaragoza and Jaen.

Collection and distribution services in France are provided via a subcontracted operation, with three hubs in Paris, Lyon and Montpellier.

Palletways Europe GmbH, based in Switzerland, was set up in 2006 to develop pan-European collection and distribution services

Palletways Poland is served by a national hub in Łódź.

Supporting all the networks is Palletways award winning technology including its unique archway scanning system which captures a photographic image of every pallet which passes through its hubs combined with automated scanning to provide seamless track and trace. Palletways’ Digital Information Hub, a custom developed communications platform provides real time data linking all operations across Europe monitoring all consignments providing total visibility and security of every pallet throughout the whole distribution process to all European destinations.

SMA Worldwide has been shortlisted for the QBE Insurance New Exporter of the Year category for the 2016 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards.

SMA Worldwide are able to offer clients a highly attractive and alternative solution to their logistic requirements. In doing so, we built a company that is truly “Client-centric” with a personal approach and bespoke service long since lost by the Integrators. We have also invested in the development of cutting edge software that simply cannot be matched for the service that it provides and its ease of use. The combination of traditional personal service and state of the art IT has proven a huge success and will continue to improve as we move into our 17th year of dedicated service.

Dr Sam Attia, Chairman, said:
“When I heard our company was a finalist in these prestigious awards, I immediately congratulated my team for their great work that has led to SMA Worldwide to be shortlisted.
It is a testament to my team’s dedication and passion. This nomination is a true honour and will strengthen our brand, along with boosting our international and UK clients trust in our products and services. This will help to inspire and drive our team to expand and develop even further over the coming years, and increase our work with the UKTI and the ‘Exporting is Great’ campaign.”

The finalists were chosen from the hundreds of businesses that entered or were nominated across 18 award categories. They will now prepare for live presentations to an expert judging panel who will decide the overall winners.

Described as “the Oscars of great British business” by David Cameron, former Prime Minister, this year’s prestigious award ceremony will take place on Tuesday 15th November, at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, where the winners will be revealed.

For the first time, Conor McGinn MP recently hosted a reception for the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards at the House of Commons. This enabled finalists to meet fellow entrants, the National Business Awards Advisory Board members, judges (who they presented to in September) and sponsors of each category.

Tom Broughton, Group Brand Director of the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards said: “Due to the high number of entries for this years’ awards, narrowing the entries down to 140 finalists was a difficult task. But through a thorough and comprehensive judging process, the selected finalists demonstrate exceptional quality and diversity across a range of business sectors within the UK. We are now looking forward to the next step of the process and meeting some of the finalists face-to-face.”

Thank you to all our customers and their years of loyalty for getting us to the position we are in now.

SMA Pallets Ltd is delighted to announce that Palletways won the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Award for Operational Excellence 2015 which was presented at an awards dinner at the Lancaster London hotel in October, in the presence of the Princess Royal, the CILT patron. Our entry was based on our Vision 20:20 strategy, covering all aspects of our operation.

Our success in these awards reflects positively on the company and reinforces our market leading position. It endorses the decision of our existing customers to use us, attracts those who don’t yet use us and enhances our reputation with all stakeholders. We are proud to share the news of our success with our clients.

Palletways delivers to 20 European destinations, which is more than any other pallet distributor, and the network consists of 400 depots across Europe of which more than 100 are in the UK.

The Palletways Group’s plans for growth are linked to key developments it has unveiled, which include:

A new central hub in Lichfield, which will be fully operational with immediate effect after a successful pilot phase. Situated just 500m from its existing central hub facility, the new facility will increase capacity by 8,000 pallets per day and enable faster turnaround of customers’ goods for onward distribution to their delivery destinations. The site comprises 11,500 square metres of warehouse and sortation space, 750 square metres of office space and a trailer park with capacity for 300 trailers.

The extension of its regional operations in London, Oxford and Scotland increasing their capacity by 40%.

Within the last 18 months the company has already established a new regional hub in Milan for Northern Italy, a brand new, larger hub in Nijmegen, Holland plus a new Palletways Fulfilment warehouse in the same location to service Benelux and the Ruhr Valley, an extension of their Iberian hub in Alcala de Henares, Madrid plus an extension of their Italian hub in Bologna, Italy.

New planned hub facilities in central Germany (Homberg), Southern France (Lyon and Montpelier) and Eastern Europe (location tbc) within the next few months.

The extension of the group’s distribution network into the Nordic countries. This will further build on the company’s geographical footprint, following recent expansion into Poland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in June and Bulgaria and Romania in August.

The continued roll-out of the group’s award-winning Digital Information Hub across its networks in Europe. The web-based platform, which was launched in the UK last year, optimises the use of real time data to provide greater operational efficiencies by reducing downtime on telephone calls, increasing vehicle utilisation and enhancing traffic management. It also takes customer service to even higher levels by speeding up the resolution of any distribution issues to ensure deliveries on time, providing real time visibility of consignments and presenting new business opportunities for users of the company’s services based on their current distribution profiles.

The introduction of a new online booking facility for customers.

These developments follow the group’s best year to date for volumes handled across its European network, with a current average of 33,000 pallets being delivered every day. This represents an increase of some 12% compared to the previous 12 months.

This year the Palletways group will process more than 8 million pallets with daily averages of 36,000 pallets and seasonal peaks exceeding 40,000 pallets. As the largest and most mature business the UK will handle 60% of these volumes.

“This is an exciting time for our network as we continue to expand, reinforcing our market leadership, our reputation for service excellence and our pan-European capabilities in support our customers’ growth ambitions,” said Luis Zubialde, Managing Director at Palletways UK.

“Our growth into new markets has been supported by our significant and continuous investment in new infrastructure in the UK and abroad and the development of improved communications technology to extend the reach of the business and drive efficiency and performance. We will continue to build on these solid foundations over the coming 12 months.”

“We are already the market leader in terms of both service and volume, our European activity now represents 40% of our overall volumes which is more than the total UK and European volume of any other competitor in the UK. This confirms our group strategy “

The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary scheme for fleet operators. Its purpose is to raise the level of quality within fleet operations, and to demonstrate which operators are accomplishing its high standards.

FORS encourages operators to take a closer look at themselves and identify areas of strength to be exploited and areas for improvement to be addressed. A successful bronze assessment provides an operator with reassurance that their operation is being run safely, efficiently and in an environmentally sound manner. The FORS logo allows potential customers to readily distinguish FORS operators from other operators. Users of fleet operator services may ask that their suppliers are FORS recognised.

There are four key areas to this standard:

Management

Vehicles

Drivers

Operations

Within each section below there are several pieces of information:

Requirement

Purpose

Demonstration

Support and Guidance

Requirements are primarily based around:

Legal compliance

Safety

Efficiency

Environmental protection.

“SMA Worldwide Ltd are proud to be FORS Accredited. It gives us the perfect platform to monitor, manage and improve our efficiency and service excellence. It is part of the best practice culture we want to put in place across our Organisation.” said Alex Stewart, Operations Supervisor at SMA.